Flustered Barack Obama on the back foot over Israeli settlements

Barack Obama experienced the sobering realities of re-engaging with the Middle
East peace process on Thursday when the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas,
openly challenged his line on Jewish settlements.

US President Barack Obama holds a joint press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas beneath a banner showing Abbas and the late Palestinian later Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on March 21, 2013.Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Mr Obama said he had told Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, that settlement expansion in east Jerusalem and the West Bank on land the Palestinians want for a future state was not "constructive" or "appropriate".

But he did not repeat his previous call, issued in 2009, that building must cease, pleading instead for resumed talks on the "core issues" of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state and providing security for Israel.

"That's not to say settlements aren't important. That's to say if we solve those two problems, the settlement issue will be resolved," Mr Obama told a press conference in a rambling answer in which his normal fluency seemed to desert him.

Referring to Palestinian demands for a building freeze before re-starting talks, he admitted that settlements were "frustrating".

Mr Obama and Mr Abbas pose with some Palestinian children in Ramallah today. Picture: Reuters

But he added: "If the expectation is that we can only have direct negotiations when everything is settled ahead of time, then there's no point in negotiations. It's essential to work through this process even if we have concerns on both sides. We can push through these things, not use them as excuses not to do anything."

Mr Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, was swift and uncompromising in his riposte. He called settlements a "hurdle and ignoble" and said their presence was killing the belief of a whole generation of Palestinians in a two-state solution.

Since 1967, Israel has built dozens of settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem that are now home to 560,000 Israelis - an increase of 60,000 since Mr Obama became president.

"Everybody considers settlements more than a hurdle toward a two-state solution," he said. The [United Nations] security council issued more than 13 resolutions, not only condemning settlements but demanding ending and removing them because they're illegal. We're demanding nothing other than the implementation of international law. The issue of settlements in clear."

While reiterating his belief in a two-state solution, Mr Obama stressed that he had come with modest goals and without any specific peace plan.

"I think part of my goal during this trip is to have helpful discussions with both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas on what they need and how they see a potential path and how it would be structured," he said.

He and John Kerry, the US secretary of state, would draw conclusions from the visit and consider how to plot a future course, Mr Obama suggested.

This afternoon the president returned to Israel, where he once again branded Israeli settlements "counterproductive" to peace in a keynote speech to students in Jerusalem.

He also warned that Israel "must reverse an undertow of isolation".

Mr Obama walked a thin diplomatic line during the speech, urging Israelis to accept Palestinians' right to self-determination, but also insisting it is time for the Arab world to "take steps toward normalizing relations" with the Jewish state.

"Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace, and that an independent Palestine must be viable, that real borders will have to be drawn," Mr Obama said.

He also insisted: "Palestinians must recognize that Israel will be a Jewish state, and that Israelis have the right to insist upon their security".

Yesterday, speaking after a meeting with Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu, the US president admitted: "Ultimately, this is a really hard problem."

Mr Obama has said he is in the Middle East to listen to the parties about how to resume peace talks which have been frozen for two-and-a-half years.

He said he had decided against coming armed with a comprehensive peace plan that might not be fit for current political conditions.

The Arab-Israeli issue has "been lingering for over six decades," he said at the press conference with Mr Netanyahu yesterday. "And the parties involved have, you know, some profound interests that you can't spin, you can't smooth over. And it is a hard slog to work through all of these issues."

Mr Obama's new approach was a stark contrast to early in his first term, when he declared Israeli settlement building to be illegitimate and promised to dedicate himself to peace.

He admitted on Wednesday that he had perhaps made mistakes, but argued that he was not the only US leader to have done so.

"I hope I'm a better president now than when I first came into office," Mr Obama said.

"I'm absolutely sure that there are a host of things that I could have done that would have been more deft and, you know, would have created better optics."

Mr Obama was met with a colder welcome as he arrived in the West Bank this morning after his effusive reception in Israel yesterday.